What's Up With Jacques de Villiers?

Who cares about Stromatolites?

Stromatolites probably don't mean much to you. But they should.

It's thanks to these blob-like "corals" that we exist. The only trick a Stromatolite has is to produce tiny bubbles of oxygen.

Bubbles are produced by primitive algae-like micro-organisms called cyanobacteria, which live on the surface of the rocks - about three billion of them to the square yard - each of them capturing a molecule of carbon dioxide and a tiny beat of energy from the sun.

The by-product of this simple process is the faintest puff of oxygen. For two billion years this is all the life there was on earth. But in that time Stromatolites raised the oxygen level in the atmosphere to 20 percent - enough to allow the development of other, more complex life forms: like us, for instance.

 

What's this got to do with you and me? Everything. The lesson I've taken out of this is that even the smallest thing we do has an effect.

 

Energy is neither created nor is it lost.

 

So, no matter what you do: prospecting, telephoning, making sure your proposal is 100% correct, networking, setting goals, seeing people, educating yourself, spending time with your children, being gentle on yourself - it all has an effect.

Sometimes it seems as if our efforts aren't having an effect. But they do, no matter how small.

 

So, in the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never give up."

 

I got the information on Stromatolites from Bill Bryson's enchanting book about Australia, Down Under (pg 387). This book finally puts to bed that Australiais just like South Africa (its not and Australians aren't like us). If you haven't already discovered Bill Bryson, you should. One of the most entertaining writers I know.

 

When Jacques de Villiers is not cribbing from Bill Bryson, you'll find him plying his trade with 200 other motivational speakers in South Africa.

You've nothing to loose

Reading adverts and copy as I do, I've noticed that spelling is not high on the priority list for most businesses.

The latest villain in this litany of uselessness is "loose". Loose weight now. You have nothing to loose. Are you loosing your mind and so on. You obviously know that it should be "lose".

The problem with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors is that it indicates that your company has sloppy thinking, no eye for detail and a cavalier attitude. Imagine if someone read one of your proposals and it was littered with spelling mistakes. What would be your thought process if you got a sloppy piece of work? "If they can't even get their proposal right, how are they going to get my business right?"

God and the devil are in the details. Focus on the detail so that you can get more business.

Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker and marketing consultant.